


VIII. Strength

by DaggerStar



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Betrayal, Character Death, Death, Fantasy wild west, Gangs, Gen, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 06:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20484233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaggerStar/pseuds/DaggerStar
Summary: Always be prepared. For anything. (Previously titled Cadaver.)





	VIII. Strength

**Author's Note:**

> Here's Lyric's Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/b4jj0n9erk9blzs6aoortzk6u/playlist/3UDEfiUXSvDTs3xhHkbgiQ?si=cAyDgRi-S92YesYswukffg

Heroes never wear black hats. Black hats belong to thieves, killers, and vagabonds. When Lyric Lopez was a kid, he would wear one of his father's hats, a white one, and play with the other kids outside. They would duel each other with sticks and pebbles, and tell tales of slaying dragons. What young Lyric knew most about his parents was that they were both his heroes. His daddy, Desiderio Lopez, fought in great battles and defeated bad guys. His ma, Victory Lopez, worked harder than anyone and took pride in it. Both of them loved Lyric so much. Desiderio often sent home letters and drawings, telling bedtime stories from miles away. Victory brought home food and a steadier paycheck than the military could provide, always making sure her son was fed and cared for. Typically, it took Desiderio about two weeks to get a letter to his family. Two weeks turned to three one month. Then continued to four. Until a letter finally came, though not from Lyric's father. When Victory opened the wax sealed envelope, she cried for hours. Lyric Lopez was just sixteen when his daddy died. Soon after, despite his own deep grief, he was forced to steel himself. Victory would stare into space sometimes, sleep all day other times. 

Young Lyric began taking odd jobs for locals. Babysitting for the neighbours, helping market vendors. He always wore his daddy's white hat, hoping Desiderio was watching from the planes. Unfortunately, if you let one cockroach into your house, more will soon follow. It started with one courier job. A scroll to be delivered to a well-dressed man in a tower. The man who hired Lyric seemed to like him, and hired him for another job. And another. Soon enough, Lyric was working contract for a semi-notorious gang, The Deadringers. He was quickly rising in their ranks, and kept telling himself that each job was to help his small family. His ma needed him, and he needed the coin. Lyric went from paper boy, to foot soldier, and was well on his way to being a made man. He learned about a new invention, firearms, and studied them closely. Less reliable than a crossbow, but more powerful and much more stylish. A higher ranking member of the gang gave him an assignment that would make or break his career. He would lead a group of people to oversee a weapons exchange. A simple go in, make nice, get out. If there was anything Lyric Lopez had become good at in his four years in the gang, it was weapons and flattery.

The day of the deal, everyone was prepared. It was to take place at the nearby docks in the middle of the night, between the Deadringers and the pirate crew of The Devil's Ghost. They all showed up, and Lyric presented the crates to the captain.

"I believe in ye quality, but forgive me if I need to test yer product," Captain Crowley had asked.

Without a reason to disagree, Lyric simply replied, "Of course, captain! No apologizin' necessary."

Lyric opened the closest wooden crate as the ocean waves crashed gently against The Devil's Ghost. As he handed the blunderbuss to the captain, he saw the captain's expression shift to something unreadable. Captain Crowley turned around and gave the blunderbuss to a young lizardfolk next to him and commanded them to fire it. When they did, a sudden jolt of arcane energy surged through them, shocking their very core until they were nothing more than a puddle of viscera.

"Ye limey bastards thought ye could fool me!" Captain Crowley shouted, each word carrying more anger than the last.

Panicking, Lyric had shifted to his more coyote-like form to defend himself, but it mattered little. The captain, fury burning in his eyes, unsheathed his cutlass and swiped at him. Lyric instinctively raised his arm, and felt as metal tore through it. His bones stopped the blade from going all the way, but the damage had been done. A searing, agonizing pain erupted in his suddenly, causing his vision to become spotty. He fell to his knees and gripped his dangling left arm. The captain leaned down and grasped at Lyric's neck. Even with a fight breaking out around them, Captain Crowley lifted Lyric into the air with one arm. His eyes were black as the night.

"No one tries me, boy!"

With that, Lyric saw blackish violet veins surround the captain's hand. Then, deep cuts began to form around Lyric, starting at his neck and trailing down his whole body. The pain was white hot and sickly, slicing at his skin over and over again. Lyric could no longer see, think, taste, or hear. Just feel a writhing agony. He hit the ground, his own pool of blood entering his mouth as he tried desperately for breath. Lyric Lopez's last thoughts were of betrayal and his mother. And with that, he was no more.

The afterlife is vague and hazy when attempted to be recalled. He remembers white-eyed ravens flying everywhere. There were rivers of screaming faces, staring at him. A stained glass sky. He had still felt the pain of his mortal injuries. Guilt. That pain carried for what had seemed like millennia. Being empty, hollow.

Lyric awoke with a violent jolt, and gasped for air he forgot he needed. Everything was wrong and loud and dizzying. His head spun, and he turned over to vomit. Lyric's skin was stiff with dried blood. Like the moment between the waking world and the dreamscape, he still heard the screaming and felt the anguish for but a moment before it was dulled by an aching, physical pain. He was supposed to be dead, why the hell was he breathing. Each breath was laboured and unnatural. Even his heart skipped beats. His chest felt as if someone had stabbed him in it, a pain only exacerbated by his heartbeat. It was difficult to keep a train of thought on the rails. His whole body stung vividly, especially his left arm. Lyric darted his head over to his left arm and gasped. His throat was too dry to scream, but he still attempted. Where a stump was supposed to be was instead a full arm. Just not his own. Beginning at the sever, blackish violet veins trailed down the length of it, and even onto his chest. In random patches were hardened, almost void-like scales embedded in the arm. At the tips of his fingers were darkened talons instead of his normal shifter claws. The actual flesh of the arm was a sickly hue of lavender, and cold to the touch. A faint glow resided beneath his skin.

Lyric felt tears fall down his cheeks and he looked at his surroundings. Sunrise on these private docks, absolutely littered with dead bodies. The crates and The Devil's Ghost were nowhere to be seen. The young man curled in on himself and began hyperventilating. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. His mother was all alone by herself, but he couldn't go back after the Deadringers' betrayal. Lyric unfurled and searched frantically for his pa's hat. With it nowhere to be found, and desperate for the familiar, he took a similar black hat from one of the gang members. When he placed it on his head, he furrowed his brow and wiped his tears. He felt his hip and found his trusty six shooter, Jezebel, still residing there. Lyric stared at his new left arm for some time. Finally tearing his canine eyes away, he rolled down his sleeve and took a glove from his coat pocket, setting it over his new talons. He had to run. There was no choice, not for now. Lyric Lopez tilted his new black hat down and, with the shaky knees of a dead man, he started walking west.


End file.
